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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JGoren who wrote (5562)	3/23/1999 9:09:00 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Vman, anyone know more? Columbia Asking FCC To Pull Slot From Loral (Space News, 03-29-99) Columbia Communications Corp. asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to terminate Loral Orion Inc.'s authority to use the unoccupied orbital slot at 47 degrees west longitude for Ku-band satellite services. In a petition filed with the FCC March 19, Columbia officials said Loral Orion has left the orbital slot, over the Atlantic Ocean, vacant for so long that it has violated FCC rules against warehousing orbital real estate. Columbia wants to use the slot for a trans-Atlantic satellite. (Not available on the web) Brazil's Slot Auction Protested by Telesat (Space News, 03-29-99) Brazil's award of a coveted orbital slot to Loral Skynet has prompted a protest from one of the losing bidders because Loral and a third participant were allowed to amend their proposals after submitting them to the government. Loral Skynet, Bedminster, N.J., bid 33.1 million reals ($17.6 million) for the right to place a communications satellite at either of two orbital slots auctioned in February by the Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel), the Brazilian telecommunications regulator. That amount was considerably higher than the minimum required bid of 1.85 million reals and nearly twice as much as the 17.7 million real bid by Ottawa-based Telesat Canada. The third participant, América Star Telecomunicações - backed by Alcatel Space of Paris - bid 9.3 million reals. (Not available on the web)

To: JGoren who wrote (5562)	3/23/1999 7:01:00 PM
From: Drew Williams	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

My point was that there is not a lot of synergy between General Motors' core business (cars/transportation) and Hughes (satellites/telecommunications), and that this lack of synergy is bad for General Motors and may be bad for Hughes in the long run. To me, their relationship smacks of the mostly discredited business theories that created behemoth conglomerates back in the fifties and sixties. Part of the idea, as others have mentioned here, was that the diversification outside your core business smoothed out the cash flow, because they would be on independent business cycles. Since then, most of these conglomerates have been dismantled, shedding business not related to their core business in order to be more competitive. Bigger, we've seen, is not necessarily better. Focus is more important than size. When you've only got one business, it is amazing what you can do, because you have no choice. Succeed or go out of business. It is surprising how many very smart people keep forgetting that excellence in one business is no guarantee of base competency in another.